


Chance for Redemption

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Conflicted Kylo Ren, Killing, M/M, Poe Dameron To The Rescue, Revan/Bastila vibes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 22:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19450924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: In which Poe knows who Kylo Ren is the whole time.





	Chance for Redemption

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: From This-Got-Too-Big-For-Trope-Bingo Productions...

The moment that Kylo Ren’s ship touched down on Jakku, Poe Dameron already knew who the man behind the mask was. Luke had told him as much, that Ben Solo had fallen to the Dark Side, even though it was hard for Poe to believe.

Everything about it was all wrong.

Ben wasn’t supposed to fall. They were supposed to be a team together — the pilot and the Jedi, doing great things together. Even watching from his hiding place on Tuanul, Poe couldn’t get over the fact it just wasn’t supposed to be that way. It was wrong. Everything about it was all wrong.

The stormtroopers dragged Lor San Tekka towards Kylo Ren — at least manhandled him. Poe couldn’t help but feel a flare-up of anger just seeing Tekka treated that way. You would expect a little more respect for an old man, wouldn’t you? 

Kylo Ren stepped forward — no, Ben stepped forward. There was something about his mask that Poe couldn’t say that he liked. Vader’s mask at least had a sort of design consistency to it. Ben’s — Kylo’s — looked like it was a whole mash-up of different elements, a strange avian monstrosity that seemed at the same time faceless —

He and Tekka were talking. Poe could hear them, from his hiding place. Ben wanted Tekka to give him the map, Tekka wanted to save him. Poe couldn’t say that he could remain in the shadows for long. He had to do something; he had to act. 

He sheathed his blaster. Walked forward. Ben turned to look at him, and then back to Tekka. “You...set this up as a trick, didn’t you? A trap?”

Tekka’s voice was even, all things considered. “I did nothing of the sort, I assure you. He was looking for you, he said. To help you.”

”I don’t need anyone’s help.” Kylo was already coming apart and there was nothing that he could do now, Poe thought, to stop it.

”You may say so,” Tekka said. “But you cannot sent the truth of who you are — or your family.”

”You’re so right,” Kylo said wryly. 

He ignited his lightsaber. Poe shouted the name “Ben” — and it was then that Kylo went terribly still, deactivating his lightsaber only to turn to Poe. 

The assembled villagers seemed to be in shock as well; they clearly hadn’t expected that. 

“Your orders, sir?” one of the stormtroopers said. 

Ben seemed to visibly be trying to catch his breath. “Put them both on board,” he said, “Lock the old man up. I have...plans for the pilot.”

A chrome-plated stormtrooper that Poe recognized as Captain Phasma marched towards them. “Sir,” she said, “The villagers.”

A pause. Ben seemed to be thinking. He was so still that he seemed almost statue-like. “They’re good as complicit,” he said. “Kill them."

”What?” Poe wasn’t naive. After all, he knew what the First Order was capable of. Had heard the stories. But Ben doing all this, any of it... “Don’t!”

The stormtroopers escorted him and Tekka to the shuttle, away from Phasma ordering her troops to fire on the villagers. Poe struggled, pleaded — but he knew his words fell on deaf ears. Ren was determined to punish the villagers for seemingly harboring two enemies of the First Order — never mind that the villagers were innocent. 

Shots rang out. Poe didn’t need to see in order to know what happened to the villagers. He already knew. 

***

Kylo Ren was already too rattled to really pay attention to the lone stormtrooper that stood there, a bloody handprint on his helmet. Even in the midst of feeling the villagers die — Snoke had said that any who were not with the First Order were the enemy, and enemies did not deserve mercy — he remembered what Tekka had said. How Poe Dameron had come back for him, somehow. 

Poe had been looking for him. 

Poe had wanted to save him. 

But how did he know? After all, very few people knew who he really was. The name Ben Solo had been forbidden in First Order territory to be spoken. So Poe knew. How? Who had told him? 

Kylo could not help but shudder to think.

He carefully avoided Poe and Tekka, both of whom looked up at him in shock and betrayal. What had they expected? He was a monster. A sick thing. Monsters didn’t show mercy. 

Monsters didn’t feel anything at all. Long ago, Ben Solo — the weakling — would have recoiled at the thought of mass-slaughter. But Kylo Ren as superior to him, in all ways. 

Tekka and Poe were blind. Blind, naive, pathetic. 

And yet...

And yet even as he settled into his meditation chamber on his shuttle, he could feel, not for the first time, the Light pulling at him. 

_Come home, Ben._

He couldn’t afford to come apart, and yet even as the shuttle blasted off, he wondered if it was already too late. 


End file.
